Suspect 009: Chapter 3

“No… No… No… NO!”

With one fast push of his arm, everything on his bedside table went tumbling on the floor. The glass vase which had been standing there, holding yellow tulips shattered into a million tiny pieces along with the expensive bags of his favorite Kenyan coffee his boss had sent him…

“SHIT!” He said, through gritted teeth and pressed a buzzer for a nurse, and then hid himself in his arms once more, still shaking.

A young nurse came in and looked at the floor in alert, quickly stepping back to avoid walking into the scattered coffee grains, yet she dared not say a word to the weird shaking man in the bed. With a glance at the number printed on a small marble block next to the door, she immediately realized she wasn’t actually supposed to be here. On the morning of the very same day, she, and her fellow nurses had been informed about the presence of an esteemed Lieutenant who was extremely mentally unstable at the time, and was to be tended by nurses with more than 3 years of experience until he was deemed available to resume ordinary social contact. The nurse, having just arrived from abroad after graduating, didn’t qualify for that post. So, without so much as glancing at the lieutenant, she pulled out her pager to call a more experienced nurse to handle and perhaps sedate the man, who seemed to be on the verge of having a seizure.

She could feel the man staring at her fumble with the pager, which she had just acquired and was still getting used to. She threw a fleeting glance his way, and then stared with wide eyes and the handsome and young man who certainly couldn’t have been a lieutenant.

Striking emerald green eyes met the baby blue, and the woman looked back down, blushing.

Kasimir didn’t even notice her fluster and continued looking at her, surveying the small nurse.. She was about 5’3, maybe 4, dressed in a typical white nurse dress and had a long platinum blonde ponytail fastened by a green bow, Kasimir thought she looked like a child.

“Yes, I’d like to have that mess cleaned up please.” He said tartly and stared at the door.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the nurse hastily push a button on her pager.

“The cleaning crew will be here shortly” She said… Her voice was really high… Kasimir wondered if she was a Soprano or a high Mezzo Soprano. The voice sounded familiar, it made him feel disgusted, yet he did not know why. He racked his brains for the source of discomfort and suddenly realized that he would never really stop being a Lieutenant, even outside of work.

The nurse, however, did not leave. Appearing to look for every excuse to stay for a bit longer, she picked up his papers, scrutinizing them carefully.

Kasimir followed her with his eyes.

“So what happened to me?” He whispered

“You’ve been poisoned, Mr. Heimm... You were injected with a high dose of arsenic. Two milliliters more and you’d have been killed. The doze injected was accurate to the nearest microliter, you’re very lucky to be alive.” The nurse said, her voice strangely professional now

“You seem to be strangely familiar with such matters, Miss... Parr.” Kasimir said slowly, contemptuously as he kept looking over the nurse, wondering just what had awoken that feeling of disgust inside him.

“I’ve always had a particular interest in poisons and such,” The nurse said with a smile and a small apologetic shrug “Oh, and please, call me Annamaria.” She was back to her original sweetness, clearly adjusting to the company of the apparently deranged lieutenant who hadn’t proven to be so bad after all.

Kasimir gave her a half smile as the cleaning crew, a woman and her broom, busted inside, and silently cleaned the floor, the woman was eyeing Rebecca carefully. She was measuring his blood pressure nervously, not looking at the woman, her hands shaking as she touched him.

Kasimir looked away from her and out of the window. His window was facing a children’s play area within the confines of the bleak blue hospital fence, which was ironically dangerously rusty and chipped, and right now, it contained a few toddlers bouncing around on little horses. The crease between his eyebrows deepened, he’d have to take that up with the hospital manager later on.

Suddenly a door slammed and it seemed as if the cleaning lady had left. Kasimir looked up at the nurse, and held on to her arm softly, which instigated a small involuntary jump.

“Why are you so nervous?” He asked quietly, a little contempt, though much less than before, remained in his voice.

The nurse jumped at his sudden question and suddenly became very interested at her hands on her lap

“Well, that woman is known to be a snitch… I’m not supposed to be talking, let alone tending to you on my boss’ orders. She’d probably tell and I’d lose my job.”

Kasimir stared at her in wonder. He knew exactly why she wasn’t allowed to talk to him, and it made perfect sense too, but he couldn’t help but feel a little offended.

“I see…” He said silently. The nurse could notice he was upset by her words, and decided to stay silent, staring at the floor.

Kasimir looked up again and thought he’d stop speaking for the time being. He just gave the nurse’s hand an amiable squeeze and fell back asleep due to a drug’s effect, his hand still on the nurse’s lap.

The nurse sighed and sat there for a bit, watching over Kasimir’s peaceful face, probably wondering who had poisoned him and why… After about 5 minutes she got up softly to leave, placing his hand on his chest.

Shortly after she’d left, a big burly man stepped inside, and from his drinking, it was quite obvious he’d been drinking.

Kasimir stiffened and raised himself up on his elbows, and stood tall in bed.

“Second Lieutenant Izaak Yael Burt. What brings you by?” He asked cautiously, staring at the man he’d rather grown to dislike over time.

With his crumpled shirt and trousers, unkempt hair, and his glasses askew, the badge he was supposed to be carrying on his waist nowhere in sight, Kasimir couldn’t help but wonder how he stepped inside like that. He frowned once more.

“I’ve brought a message from the colonel,” Izaak said, with a typical drunken slur. “He says for you to keep a hold of yourself. You’re being scrutinized by the higher ups right now. One move in the wrong direction, and they’ll strip you off your ranks. You know we can’t have that again, Kas.”

Although, Izaak’s drunken slur seemed to turn into a tone of friendly worry through his speech, this didn’t stop Kasimir from grimacing at that god awful nickname.

Yet he bowed his head. What Izaak said was right, too right. He had to control his anger and his ambition to succeed this time; he couldn’t lose the one thing he had.

“Anything else?” Kasimir said coldly, yet with a tinge of sadness, his hands shivering in his lap.

“Yes.” Izaak, whose years of detective work alongside Kasimir allowed him to take notice, said firmly, and sat down next to him. “I want you to know that none of us in the military put a speck of blame on you for what you did, what you went through back then. I think we’d all do the same thing in your shoes.”

Kasimir nodded, not at all believing that statement.

What he’d done was inhuman. HE was inhuman.

Deep thoughts started to swirl in his head. He’d had no family, no love interest, not even a single real friend. It was all just him and his job. Maybe that was what drove him to do what he did three years ago.

Perhaps he’d never know WHY he did it. Did it even matter right now? All he had to do now was to make sure it never happened again.